Humanity: An International Journal of Human Rights, Humanitarianism, and Development

Abstract:

Has the human rights movement helped entrench neoliberalism? Could it help displace it? This article analyzes "right to medicines" cases, arguing that human rights, even in "socioeconomic" form, can intensify inequality and reproduce neoliberal logics, where they are simply overlain upon the existing political economy. But other versions of human rights are possible too. By tracing the efforts of access to medicines groups to link the right to health to reforms of local and global intellectual property laws, I explore a form of human rights movement that has more transformative potential.